Kenya intends to raise $210 million (KSh21 billion) from private investors for the last phase of the Mombasa – Malaba railway project according to the Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia. “We are looking for options for the railway, we prefer the private sector so there’s no impact on the country’s debt,” said the Cabinet Secretary.
The government plans to spend $60 million (KSh6 billion) on a 43 kilometer meter-gauge line that will link the new standard gauge line to the century-old railway line. The link will be complete in one year.
The initial plan was to have the Standard Gauge Railway run from Mombasa to Kenya’s landlocked neighbor, Uganda. However, the plan has been abandoned and construction of the new railway line will stop at Naivasha. According to the CS in charge of Transport and Infrastructure, Kenya will spend $150 million (KSh15 billion) restoring the old meter gauge railway that will connect Naivasha port to Malaba town at the border of Kenya and Uganda.
As per Bloomberg, Kenya received a $4.68 billion (~KSh473 billion) loan from China’s Export-Import Bank for the first two phases of the standard gauge railway and needed $3.6 billion (~KSh364 billion) for the last phase of the project.
Uganda has had to postpone plans to construct a standard gauge line connecting Malaba to Kampala, the nation’s capital. “In order for Uganda to start the actual construction we have to wait until Kenya has got somewhere so that as we do the SGR on the Uganda side we arrive at Malaba at the same time,” said Uganda’s Transport Minister Monica Ntege.
